87 



n community and dovoto thoir tiino and talent in loarnin.<; the conditions that 

 jn-evaii in tiiat connnunity l)y which some farmers succeed and others fail, so 

 that he can direct and lead the farmer who needs help to the institute meet- 

 ini:. where he can come in contact with the party who can help him. 



There is a tendency on the part of many institute instructors to overestimate 

 the capacity of a farmers" institute audience to receive and assimilate. They 

 win gorge their hearers with i^^odd tliiuiis until the danger is that none of it 

 can be digested. If the instruction can not be illustrated by material things 

 to secure the attention of the eye as well as the ear. then a syllabus of the 

 address or oral instruction should be distributed, to be taken home for future 

 study and reference. 'Ibis syllabus should be bi-ief; should explain scientific 

 and unusual terms, and direct attention to bulletins and books for further 

 information. 



Discussion. 



C. H. McCoRMCCK, of Ohio. There is too nuicli repetition and there is a good 

 deal of filler in many of our agricultural articles and addresses. We want to 

 elinunate anything in the way of filler, and in its place we want to have practi- 

 cal everyday thoughts from i)ractical men as to the actual work on the farm. 



PROBLEMS IN THE SOUTH. 



J. C. Hardy, of Mississippi. The new problems in the South, I suppose, are 

 the new problems in the West and the North. 



Institute work, in my judgment, is the strongest power that has ever been 

 organized for the reaching of all the people for the benefit of better civilization. 

 We have come to realize that the farmers' institute movement's main function 

 is to take the work of the experiment station and incorporate it in practice. Our 

 effort should be to make the people take principles and vitalize them in 

 practice. 



Education which does not give power is a false education. The great secret 

 of the I'apid growth of the agricultural and mechanical colleges in the last few 

 years Is that the people have realized that men that come out from them have 

 knowledge that can be incorporated in something concrete. The purpose of the 

 farmers' institute movement is to incorporate knowledge in the practice of agri- 

 culture. The work of the farmers' institute nuist be in vital touch with the 

 needs and conditions of the people. We do not want cut-and-dried methods, but 

 methods should be changed in e^■ery institution to meet the needs as they are 

 found there. 



Discussion. 



W. R. DoDSON, of Louisiana. Truly a new problem of great significance has 

 arisen in the South to confront the directors of public education in agriculture. 

 The solution of the now greatest question before the southern people concerns 

 not only those engaged in agriculture, but every man and every, industry that is 

 affected by the cotton crop of the world. These diversified interests ramify, into 

 other branches of agriculture, manufacture, commerce, aud finance, till it 

 becomes not only a national but an international question. The great money 

 crop of the South is cotton. In many States it is almost the only farm crop of 

 great value. Eleven States produced a crop in 1903 which sold for more than 

 .?(j(>().(>(»0.000, the largest amount ever paid to any country- for the croj) from 

 one plant for one year. A new insect pest has appeared which destroys the 

 cotton to an extent that threatens to modify the industri.il and sociological 

 conditions of several millions of people. The Mexican boll weevil is now dis- 



